Bblonde Lightening Spray

I'm very lucky to have naturally blonde hair and I never colour it, but sometimes the colour can go a bit dull and need a bit of a lift! I've been using Bblonde Lightening Spray by Jerome Russell recently to help give it a sunkissed look.

Bblonde Lightening Spray is a permanent lightening spray that has an effect after three applications. It is a heat activated product with added thermal protection too (always a bonus as I'm useless at remembering to use heat protection spray!)

As the product is heat activated it's best to use it on wet hair before blow drying, and obviously the more heat it gets the lighter your hair will go, so if its a sunny day you can always put it on wet hair then sit out in the sun for a bit before blow drying!

I love using this spray as it makes my hair so soft and shiny and gives it a gorgeous sunkissed look without the hassle of dying it and having to worry about damaging my hair!

The spray costs around £5.99 and is available from most drug stores and supermarkets! Have you tried a lightening spray before?

Korres Wild Rose Eye Cream

A product I've been loving recently in my quest to prevent skin ageing (yes, really) is this brightening eye cream from Korres. A lot of you may wonder what the point of an eye cream is, and truth be told I did too before using this, but the skin around your eyes is very delicate and needs separate care that a moisturiser can't do!

Korres is a Greek skincare brand that produce a lot of products with highly concentrated natural ingredients. Not only do I love the goodness of their products but also the packaging that each one comes in. The eye cream packaging is very simple and almost clinical, it reminds me of something very scientific and it looks like it comes from a laboratory, which is good as it gives the impression the company have done their research! When you open up the eye cream box the packaging has a cute pattern inside.

The eye cream comes in a handy squeezy bottle so you can get just the right amount, no more digging around in jars. The velvety eye cream helps to brighten the eye area while reducing the appearance of dark circles and fine lines. It also soothes and adds radiance to the under eye area.

I've been using it day and night to help brighten my eyes in the morning and protect and repair overnight! I've noticed my eyes do look a lot brighter throughout the day while I've been using it and it's helping to keep fine lines at bay! A tiny pea-sized amount is enough to use for both eyes, simply pat on under the eye area and the patting motion helps to soothe eyes as well!

Korres Wild Rose Eye Cream is £20 and available from ASOS 

Lemongrass House Wild Mint Refreshing Foot Spray

Lemongrass House is a range of hand-made spa products from Thailand that use all natural ingredients. They're against animal testing and none of their products contain any parabens, sulphates, perfumes..or any other nasties! Now, don't ask me why, but there's something about Chinese/Eastern & Asian beauty products that I've found really interesting recently. I've taken to buying a lot of Chinese beauty products off Ebay, not only because they're so cheap but as they have a lot of great quality natural ingredients!

So I was very excited to try some new products from the Lemongrass House range. Lemongrass house produce a load of different bath & shower, face&body, hair care and even pet ranges! The thing I love about the Lemongrass range is you can buy either a pre-mixed product or even create your own with their range of aromas!

I recently got a few products from Lemongrass House: the Fig Tea body cream,  Lavender bath salts and (my favourite of their products so far) the Wild Mint Foot Spray.

I've loved using this spray during the recent hot weather! After a long day it would instantly refresh and perk up my feet, and I'd use it throughout the day to keep them fresh. It is invigorating, instantly cooling the feet and keeping them fresh all day. The mint essential oil is anti-bacterial, to keep feet clean, and the aloe vera and lemon extracts help refresh feet and bring them back to life! The foot spray costs £8.95 and is available online or in Lemongrass House's new UK store.

Origins Smarty Plants CC Cream

You would have thought most brands had already done the whole BB/CC Cream thing by now (in all honesty, I'm starting to get over it) but the latest to jump on the CC Cream bandwagon is Origins! After already trying out some BB Creams (Garnier and Ginvera) I didn't really see what the point of CC Creams was and was dubious about whether to upgrade or not. But seeing as Origins is a trusted skincare favourite of mine I thought I'd give it a go!

Origins "Smarty Plants" (get it?) is a skin complexion corrector with SPF20. It claims to help protect, perfect and correct skin. It corrects colour imperfections and brightens skin tone, hydrate skin and reduce appearance of fine, dry lines and creates a radiant complexion. 

First impressions: If you're familiar with Origins skincare products you will recognise the smell immediately. The CC Cream felt really fresh when I applied it to my face and it went on smoothly. It did make my complexion look radiant and healthy but it gave a very sheer coverage so I wouldn't use this for foundation, more as a tinted moisturiser for days off. Still, like with all Origins products, I know that it's doing some good to my skin and love that it contains Vitamin C & Green Tea to protect skin and help the anti ageing process along!

Origins CC Cream costs £28 and is available in two shades: Light/Medium and Medium/Dark (picture above is Light/Medium). It will be available in August!

Will you be trying the Origins CC Cream? What have been your favourite BB/CC Creams to use?

My summer makeup picks!

Along with tans, summery clothes and barbeques, sunny weather can also bring sweaty faces, spotty skin and melting foundation. The heat can make me not want to wear foundation as it can be too cakey on my skin, but with long shifts at work my skin can often look dull and tired so I still need a bit of coverage and some colour to perk it up a bit. Luckily I've found the perfect products and here is what makeup I've been loving this week...

Benefit Porefessional primer

As my skin is quite dry I usually steer clear of mattifying products and go for brightening ones instead, but with the hot weather making my skin more oily this has been a godsend for making my makeup stay put and stopping my face from becoming shiny! If you prefer to go without makeup you can wear Porefessional primer on its own to reduce the look of pores and keep your skin matte all day, or for the extra oily ones among us you can also wear it on top of your makeup! I've been doing nine hour days at work all week and haven't had to touch up my makeup once after using this primer.

Ginvera Nude Cover BB Cream

I have already done a review of this BB Cream which you can read here. This is fast becoming my favourite makeup product, I've even replaced my Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation with it and am using this instead as it gives much better coverage! I wouldn't normally wear a tinted moisturiser as I like a fuller coverage, which is why I like BB Creams, and this gives great coverage without feeling thick or cakey and isn't too dewy either. It is suitable for all skin tones and skin types, and makes my skin look so healthy. If you haven't tried this yet I can't recommend it enough.

Benefit Coralista Blusher

With the sunshine kicking in a lot of us will start to get a bit of a tan, and I prefer to use a warmer glowing colour on my cheeks rather than a hot and flushed pink. This lovely coral blush is very sheer and has a light shimmer to it so it just gives the cheeks a nice healthy glow without making it overly obvious you're wearing blusher. Perfect for a nice pick me up, especially as I never tan so have to rely on makeup to make me look sunkissed!

Rimmel Glam'Eyes Lash Flirt Mascara

I haven't tried a lot of waterproof mascaras and at the moment I'm using a nice natural one for everyday use to make my lashes stand out without looking OTT. Rimmel is one of my favourite high street makeup brands and this mascara is perfect for everyday use, helping to define lashes while still giving them a bit of volume.

Finally if the hot weather does get the better of me I just top it all off with a bit of MAC powder and I'm god to go for the day!

What makeup have you been using this summer?

Design an outfit for Whitney Port and have it featured in Glamour magazine!

If you're a budding fashion designer you will love this competition! Venus and Olay have teamed up with Whitney Port to offer designers the chance to have their work featured in Glamour magazine. All you have to do is design a glamorous two piece outfit for Whitney Port to wear, and the winning outfit will be worn by her in an exclusive Glamour feature.

The winner will also get a £1,000 bursary towards their work and a signed image of Whitney wearing their design!

The competition is being launched to celebrate Venus and Olay's recent collaboration and Whitney Port being the latest Venus Goddess Ambassador.

It is so easy to get involved and is an amazing opportunity. All entries must be received by 7th August so get creating quick!

To enter in the competition or find out more information click here! Good luck!

OOTD: Sunny Weekend

Sunglasses - Primark
Top - H&M
Shorts - Miss Guided
Pumps - Primark
Canvas Tote - Given at University

Just a quick outfit of the day post today as I rarely do them! This was taken in Brighton on Sunday when I went to stay with a friend there for the weekend. The weather was b-e-a-utiful so I opted for my denim shorts with this crochet top from H&M. Although it was probably a bit too hot for dolly shoes a lot of walking was involved that weekend and it is virtually impossible to hike in sandals!

Hope you all enjoyed the sunny weather!

Cosmopolitan Blog Awards 2013 shortlist. I can't believe it!

I haven't stopped grinning since I got a lovely little tweet from Carmen, from Maiden of Wood, congratulating me on being shortlisted for the Cosmo Blog Awards! I had no idea at the time as I was busy munching my dinner but then went online and found out I've been shortlisted for the Best New Beauty Blog category! I can't believe it and I am so so excited and grateful so just wanted to say a huge huge MASSIVE thank you to everyone who voted for me! I'm so happy for everyone who has been shortlisted, there's a lot of my favourites in there and they all deserve it!

Real Techniques dupe Ebay brushes

Not so long ago I stumbled across these cheap makeup brushes on Ebay that were virtually identical to the Real Techniques ones. Although dubious about whether the quality would be as good I ordered myself a few of them.

Tapered brush £1.99

Flat brush £2.19

Angled brush £2.19

Admittedly I almost felt guilty for buying these as I'm such a fan of the Real Techniques brushes and they aren't really that expensive. I only have the Real Techniques expert face brush so wanted to give these a go. On the Ebay selling page there is no indication as to what type of brush they are, they are all just labelled with numbers and it is up to the images to help you decide. I ordered a tapered brush (similar to the Real Techniques setting brush), a flat one (like the Expert Face brush) and an angled brush (like the RT foundation brush)

In comparison to the Real Techniques brushes these are a little taller and have a different branding on the handles. They are still great quality for such cheap brushes. As they came from China delivery did take quite a while (it took about 12/13 days for mine to arrive) but apart from that I am really impressed with them!

You can buy about five different brushes from the range and also choose the handle colour (pink, blue, or bronze). If you are a lover of different make up brushes and are after some spares or just looking for a bargain I'd definitely recommend these! You can buy these particular brushes from Ebay here. 

Have you purchased any of these brushes yet or do you prefer the Real Techniques? What is your favourite Real Techniques brush?

Natalie x